Upgrade Advice

shadowake · 6 Jun 2009 at 12:20

I'm thinking of upgrading my system bit by bit rather than just buying a new system in one go.

What do you think I should swap first? I can probably afford about £100-£200 a month. Less this month as I just bought my bro a new pc (parts come on monday

). This is my current spec:

-Q6600 (Not a great clocker can get to 3.4 but stable max 3.2, could be cooling problem)
-Asus Geforce 8800Ultra 768MB (would like two 4870/90's or a 4870x2 one day!)
-CIT 1001 Case (Awful airflow, really don't like this case anymore)
-Fans that can only blow inwards (only have fittings on one side :confused:

)
-Xfi Extreme Gamer sound card
-2 Raptors in RAID0 (would like an SSD for OS and keep the raptors for programs)
-Asus silent square pro CPU cooler (not great and it's huge)!
-IP35Pro Gigabyte Mobo (Really like this board)
-Cruicial balistix 4x1GB DDR2 sticks (1066Mhz I think)
-DVD-RW (Broke a couple of days ago)!
-1100W Tagen PSU (pretty decent, not modular but supports quad SLI/crossfire)

I'd eventually like an i7 or AMD X4 but could go for a faster 775 chip, undecided.

So what would you guys swap first, secont, third etc etc

Advice as always taken on board and much apreciated!

mpj88 · 6 Jun 2009 at 12:38

Would be tempted by a better case first, def if you only have intakes. Worth it to get a good airflow through your case, especially if you want 2 gpus in your system might help with temps on you cpu too.

If you really like your mobo then get a the asus 4870x2 with the new cooler next.

Then think about ssds.

Ben M · 6 Jun 2009 at 12:42

the order I'd go would be:

case
graphics card 1
ssd
save
save
save
mobo cpu RAM

shadowake · 6 Jun 2009 at 14:51

Ben M said:
the order I'd go would be:

case
graphics card 1
ssd
save
save
save
mobo cpu RAM

Yeah I was thinking a cheapish case this month (Antec 300 maybe?) and some decent fans.

Then next month maybe a new CPU cooler (noctuna or fenrir?)

Then a new graphics card

Then ssd

Then CPU, mobo, ram with some saving in between?

wbc1 · 6 Jun 2009 at 16:02

Why not just sell your PC, add how ever much money (budget) you have at the moment and build a shiny new one?

shadowake · 6 Jun 2009 at 16:30

wbc1 said:
Why not just sell your PC, add how ever much money (budget) you have at the moment and build a shiny new one?

That's what I was originally planning, but I bought a computer for my bro as a wedding gift so my budgets blown

It's not like my computers unusable so I may as well just update it a bit over a few months. A friend has offered to buy it for 600 but I'd need to put a fair bit to that to afford a decent new one (which I did have until I bought that PC for my brother)! :rolleyes:

wbc1 · 6 Jun 2009 at 16:48

I'd sell it for £600, seems like a good deal on your parts! Then build a new set up.

JoeH · 6 Jun 2009 at 17:00

Cor £600, you can buy a pretty awesome rig with that!

shadowake · 6 Jun 2009 at 17:30

wbc1 said:
I'd sell it for £600, seems like a good deal on your parts! Then build a new set up.

JoeH said:
Cor £600, you can buy a pretty awesome rig with that!

I'd need to add about £400 which I don't have ATM. To get a decent spec with an SSD and a decent quad core I'm sure would cost more than £600?

If I upgrade I can also keep the raptors and PSU (probably the only things worth keeping!) but 2 raptors and a 1100W PSU would cost me a fair bit to buy new?

shadowake · 7 Jun 2009 at 10:42

OK how about this?

Does this look like a worthwhile upgrade to last me another 18-24 months?

Thinking is then I can swap out mobo, processor and ram for the newest socket and that should do me a bit longer:

I'll keep my raptors for games and my 1100W PSU and mobo for now.

And can sell my old bits in the MM to recoup some of the cash (maybe up to a 60Gig SSD if I can get a decent price for my old stuff).